First let me apologize for such a length of time between posts, work conference pulled me away and then I had my great friend Lara visit this weekend, which was way more fun than my conference!!!
In all the years I’ve known her, we just realized I’ve never actually cooked for her. Which is funny as I’m typically the one who flies to her house and she’s cooked tons for me over the years. So in a way this weekend then turned into cooking escapades or rather how almost every activity we did involved food (and some drinking).
The first night involved taking her to my favorite taco place (the one that inspired the baked avocado tacos)…Torchy’s! We indulged in fried avocado, fried portabella mushroom and fried chicken tacos (clearly not on a health kick this weekend) plus chips and queso and guacamole! Accompanied with some Sangrita and Tequila all was awesome, then food coma and we called it for the first night.
The next day started a little later and with just fried eggs, bacon and hash browns which then led to deciding what to do – we ended up with shopping, going to a movie that serves food as you watch (mac ‘n cheese and coconut chicken tenders) and then we hit up Sur La Table if only to look at all the kitchen items we never knew existed but totally now need! Then the real food idea came to me that we would stop by my favorite grocery store (the one I got stuck in on New Years Eve praying not to be crushed at the butchers counter), and we were off to get some truly fresh baby back ribs to smoke. While wandering through we also grabbed butternut squash to make a side of risotto, sage, garlic, sweet onion, and broth.
To get the ribs started I made a dry rub of brown sugar, chili powder, lemon rosemary salt, pepper, chipotle powder, coriander, thyme, basil, oregano, orange peel, and sage. Then rubbed the two racks and warmed up the smoker.
We have a green mountain grill so set it to 225 and placed the rubbed ribs to the right side.
In the meantime whipped up bbq sauce to baste with (start with 4 slices of bacon wrapped around a bundle of thyme) add onions, garlic, ketchup, red wine vinegar, molasses, brown sugar, mustard powder – simmer together and tada:
I started the risotto next – warming the broth and then adding butter and olive oil, then the sweet onion. The butternut squash was roasting on a cookie sheet in grape seed oil with salt, pepper, dash of chipotle pepper and nutmeg. Adding the Arborio rice to the onion and coating thoroughly for about 2 minutes, and next a lovely pinot grigio splash to allow the rice to start to break down. After that simmers – just slowly adding in broth a little at a time, and after halfway through the wonderful smelling butternut squash which broke down slightly in the broth leading to this amazing color.
As a good friend is always a special occasion, I totally fried some sage to crumble on top of the risotto when it was finished. My justification is because sage and butternut squash are the best combo ever!
In between adding in broth to the rice, there were trips to visit the ribs outside and say hello with a lovely mop of broth, vinegar, some left over rub and Worcestershire. As the risotto was finishing the ribs had reached nirvana and we were totally starving from the smell, we pulled them off of the smoker and sliced (or rather just let the knife slip through as they were starting to fall off the bone) them. We also may have sampled as we sliced – though we will never completely confirm that took place.
So with all of the yummy ribs, sauce and risotto going on – there must of course be dessert. Typically bourbon pecan pie is the go to in my house, but we were out of bourbon and alas food comas do not make for good driving conditions. Therefore, amaretto pecan pie!
The final meal of her visit was biscuits ‘n gravy. Partially as an excuse to finally take pictures (she is my lovely hand model for the post), and because it’s a great brunch option. Such a great time! I will absolutely post the full recipes for all items soon!